While almost everyone can lose weight short term, 95% of weight loss attempts fail within 5 years:

“You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number of diets, but then the weight comes back. We found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of participants, while complete weight regain was found in the majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health benefits for the majority of people…In addition, the studies do not provide consistent evidence that dieting results in significant health improvements, regardless of weight change. In sum, there is little support for the notion that diets lead to lasting weight loss or health benefits.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17469900

How many "dieting attempts" does a person need before they (the 66 billion dollar dieting industry) realize the dieter is not the one failing?

“Consider the Women’s Health Initiative, the largest and longest randomized, controlled dietary intervention clinical trial, designed to test the current recommendations. More than 20,000 women maintained a low-fat diet, reportedly reducing their calorie intake by an average of 360 calories per day and significantly increasing their activity. After almost eight years on this diet, there was almost no change in weight from starting point (a loss of 0.1 kg), and average waist circumference, which is a measure of abdominal fat, had increased (0.3 cm)”

http://www.nutritionj.com/content/10/1/9

For anyone who likes to begin sentences with "Yeah, diets don't work, BUT...", I have a link for you:

The correlation between weight loss and health is tricky because a lot of other factors (family history, physical activity, nutrition, prejudice, etc.) come into play. Science and medicine are still working on exactly how it all comes together.

On top of that, how your doctor PERSONALLY FEELS about fat people can make a huge difference on how your “weight-issue” is treated.

Complications include feeling constantly cold and flu-like on top of your mood swings and new “relationship issues”. Also, frequent diarrhea, hernias, and death! And that’s just what the official website lists!

http://www.mayoclinic.org/bariatric-surgery/complications.html

A 2013 study of lap band surgery patients found that, within the first 10 years, almost half of the participants had to have "revisional" procedures. Eg. Having the foreign body removed.

Sure, sometimes thin people naturally gain weight and vise versa...but whenever science tries to weasel in and control body size (in either direction) it never goes as planned. Bodies are complicated. We are more than calories and exercise.

Research is showing us that when children diet they are more likely to adopt dangerous behaviors such as starvation that can lead to eating disorders. Dieting causes kids to lose motivation to adopt healthy behaviors, and it even causes them to GAIN MORE WEIGHT.

Another study shows that kids who are “overweight” and “obese” actually eat less than children with a “normal” BMI.

There are great ways of measuring health and there are even, admittedly, reliable ways to measure obesity. But they are expensive. Relying on the BMI means doctors don't feel the need to use one of the more scientifically sound methods that are available to measure obesity levels.

Also, The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual. So, there’s that.

“no measure of body weight or body fat was related to the degree of coronary vessel disease. The obesity-heart disease link is just not well supported by the scientific and medical literature…Body weight, and even body fat for that matter, do not tell us nearly as much about our health as lifestyle factors, such as exercise and the foods we eat…total cholesterol levels returned to their original levels–despite absolutely no change in body weight–requiring the researchers to conclude that the fat content of the diet, not weight change, was responsible for the changes in cholesterol levels.”

Believe it or not, there's pretty strong evidence that it isn't even real. Or, at least, isn't an infectious disease (as the term "epidemic" suggests). You can't catch fat, people.

Seriously, there is no research for this one. I can't give you a research article here because it doesn't exist. The truth is fat has never been proven to CAUSE any of the diseases it is CORRELATED WITH and we don't actually know why that correlation exists. But we do know fat people can be healthy and thin people can be unhealthy so if that isn't enough reason not to judge people based on how they look or make assumptions about what they do and/ or do not eat, I don't know what is.

In 2014, the NAAFA (The national association to advance fat acceptance) convinced Disney World to change a new attraction that was previously degrading to fat people.The new version reminds guests that healthy habits are for everyone. Thanks to Disney for listening.